Collaboration software encompasses a wide range of solutions that enable users to work together on documents, to exchange information, and in interact many other ways. A wide variety of software tools and services may be considered collaboration software, such as productivity applications, email, and chat services. In fact, simply leveraging the invite feature of a calendar application to schedule a group meeting is an example of collaboration.
Some collaboration solutions allow users to interact in real-time to work on a shared document and in other, more extensive ways. For example, Microsoft® Lync® is a service through which online meetings can be hosted, during which documents can be shared and edited simultaneously, whiteboard sessions can be conducted, and chat, voice, and video communications can be exchanged, among other features.
Microsoft® Lync®, Google® Hangouts®, and other services for setting up and conducting online meetings are generally initiated on an ad-hoc basis or as a scheduled event. Ad-hoc collaboration sessions are created when two or more users spontaneously contact each other through a collaboration interface, possibly by sending instant messages or calling. They can then collaborate on content, share their desktops, and the like.
With respect to collaboration sessions that are scheduled, users can be invited to an event that is then stored in their calendar, usually with a link that connects to the online meeting. At the time of the event, a user can navigate to the online meeting through the event stored in their calendar by clicking on the link, which will connect them to the online meeting. Collaboration may then commence through an interface a collaboration service.
In both situations, no trace of the collaboration sessions remain after they are over, other than recordings that may have been made or other vestiges of them, such as an expired event that remains in a user's calendar. To remedy this, some solutions allow collaboration sessions to persist, such that interactions conducted during a meeting can be replayed at a later time, and so that content can be generated and edited asynchronously.
In any case, users typically participate in the collaboration sessions through the services or software solution that hosts the session. For instance, users access Lync® sessions through Lync® clients running locally, through a web browsers, or elsewhere.
Overview
Provided herein are systems, methods, and software for implementing collaboration services in which some participants may engage in collaboration sessions through instances of a collaboration application, while other participants may engage in collaboration sessions through a social network application.
In at least one implementation, a collaboration service registers users as participants in a collaboration session. As session content is received from at least one instance of various instances of a collaboration application engaged by the users, the collaboration service shares the session content with at least one other instance of the collaboration application. In addition, the collaboration service shares session information descriptive of at least a portion of the session content with at least one social network application associated with at least one user registered as one of the participants.
This Overview is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Technical Disclosure. It should be understood that this Overview is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.